A Million Dollars

Going To Israel

A Million Dollars for Israel

Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel, is very dear to Rikki and me. It was the home to which she “returned” after the war. It was the only home then left to her once the Croatian Nazis killed her parents and sister and confiscated their house in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. She was fortunate to have made her way to Italy during the war and to survive under Italian and then British rule, and then with surviving aunts and uncles to come legally to Palestine on a British ship in 1944. She lived in a youth village until it was time to serve in the IDF, did two years in the army on a kibbutz near the Golan, worked and finished her studies in Jerusalem. We met by accident through roommates during the year that I spent doing independent studies in Jerusalem, and were married in a small synagogue in Tel Aviv. (For the details of that story, see: “Our Wedding in Tel Aviv” under Life Stories earlier in this blog.)

Once ordained in 1964, and having begun my rabbinic career in Denver, we both wanted to show our love for the land and the people and to be able to support the country. The 60s were heady times for Israel, fraught with internal challenges and external threats. Yet, Jewish immigrants were flooding in by the tens of thousands, the economy was hot, and the military was growing more powerful and confident by the year. Laughingly, we determined that we would like to be able to give Israel a million dollars – this from a couple that at the time had nothing but a small bi-weekly paycheck. So, how could we ever hope to fulfill that desire? We decided that if we were to take congregants and community members on tours of the land ... and so a quick 1967s pencil and paper calculation. Hmm ...

El Al airfare, hotels, touring, miscellaneous spending per person would be about $4,000 x 25 people = $100,000 or 1/10th of our goal x 10 years = goal met. Of course we were way off. Per person prices rose each year, and the number of people joining us each year was rarely less than 30, and the number of tours that we eventually led to Israel exceeded 25 ... a recalculation ... well over five million dollars!

These tours did several things for our young and growing congregation. It brought people who would not have come to know each other together, resulting in good and often long lasting friendships. It bonded large groups of member families. It enabled both of us to get to know dozens and dozens of our members on a deeper level, having time to share meals and long bus ride discussions with different couples each day, and it gave me a chance to teach about places we were visiting. Many of these tour groups returned home to establish their own havurah (study/social group). Of course, the deeper impact is that a love of the land translates into further donations for organizations and causes there, and those positive attitudes pass down to the children and grandchildren.

Obviously, Rikki and I didn’t take over 1,000 people on some 25 tours without experiencing some memorable, unusual events. And while I could include a few dozen or so brief incidents of humor or pathos, delight or disappointment, I’ll pick just a few to share with you in the weeks ahead. Sometimes less is more.